Local 9 aim for repeat

Wednesday

May 9, 2007 at 12:01 AMMay 9, 2007 at 9:19 AM

It has hardly been a great start to the season for the Braintree High School baseball team, but the Wamps do have the same record at the halfway point of this season that they had last spring when they qualified for MIAA Division 1 South tournament play for the first time in three years.

After a week in which the Wamps came out with a split of the four games they played, they hit the midpoint of this season with a 4-6 record, the same mark they had after 10 games last season.

Win Bates

It has hardly been a great start to the season for the Braintree High School baseball team, but the Wamps do have the same record at the halfway point of this season that they had last spring when they qualified for MIAA Division 1 South tournament play for the first time in three years.

After a week in which the Wamps came out with a split of the four games they played, they hit the midpoint of this season with a 4-6 record, the same mark they had after 10 games last season.

Braintree began the second half of the season Monday when it hosted Carey Division rival Framingham, who defeated the Wamps, 6-1, in the season opener and also swept the season series a year ago.

That game began a second straight week in which the Wamps will play four games because of having two non-league games rained out over the April vacation, and they might need better than a 2-2 week this time.

Braintree hosts Needham, who came back to beat the Wamps early in the season, in its first night game of the season Wednesday at 7 p.m., then plays a second straight night game Thursday at Dedham’s Memorial Park against the Marauders. The week finishes with a non-league home game Saturday afternoon at 1 against Patriot League leader Hanover.

Next week, the Wamps face Newton North and Wellesley on the road Monday and Wednesday and hosts Brookline on Friday.

Last week saw the Wamps win two games by shutout over Brookline and Norwood in which they scored three and two runs respectively, but lose their other two games to Middleboro and Weymouth despite scoring five runs in each game.

“We lost a couple of close games in which we didn’t make some plays,” said Wamps head coach Bill O’Connell. “We got great pitching in the two games we won. Danny Gaughan stepped up against Norwood and (Tom) Mahoney and (Mike) Buckley pitched great against Brookline. We had great effort all week. We battled hard and we’ve been in pretty much every game.”

The Wamps came into this week still two games under .500. Last season, Braintree went 7-3 the second half of its season to make it to tournament play and will need to step it up once again in the second half to finish strong and get to tournament play for the second straight season.

Wamps 3, Brookline 0

Braintree picked up its first road win of the season on the artificial turf at Parsons Field behind the stellar pitching of Mahoney and Buckley, who combined to limit the Warriors to six hits, all singles, backed by some of the best defense the Wamps have played all season.

The game was scoreless until the seventh inning when pinch-hitter Christian Adams came off the bench and delivered a triple to right field on a fly ball that was misjudged to score senior John Cole with the game’s first run. Cole had singled to lead off the inning and was bunted to second by junior P.J. Mullin.

The Wamps added two insurance runs in the eighth inning. Junior Kevin Donovan and senior tri-captain Brendan Wheeler got the inning going with singles and were moved up a base on a sacrifice bunt by Glen Peterson.

Donovan scored on a wild pitch and Wheeler scored on a single by senior Brian Ellis.

The defense turned three double plays behind Mahoney and Buckley, the biggest an unassisted double play by first baseman Ellis, who made a diving stop of a bases-loaded line drive in the second inning and then tagged the base to complete the double play.

Donovan and Cole led the way with two hits each. Mahoney, making his first varsity start, picked up his first varsity win with seven strong innings of five-hit shutout pitching, and Buckley pitched the final two innings for his first save.

Middleboro 9, Wamps 5

The Wamps gave up seven runs in an inning for the second time this season, and once again, it was costly as the visiting Sachems overcame a 4-2 deficit by scorning seven runs in the top of the sixth.

Senior Matt Quigg pitched well in his first varsity start, but the defense came apart in that one inning. A two-run home run by Peterson was the highlight for the Wamps.

Wamps 2, Norwood 0

Senior tri-captain Dan Gaughan pitched the finest game of his career in blanking the Mustangs for his first career shutout.

He pitched the entire nine innings, making for the first complete game of the season thrown by a Wamp pitcher and limited Norwood to five hits to give Braintree a win over the Mustangs for the third straight year.

The offensive standout was junior Matt Bresnahan, making his first varsity start in right field. Bresnahan had a pair of hits, scored one run and drove in the other. Bresnahan led off the third with a double to right field and scored on a single to left-center by junior second baseman Tim Sullivan to give Braintree a 1-0 lead.

The game stayed that way until the sixth when Ellis continued his productive hitting with a double to left-center and scored on a single to right-center by Bresnahan. Sullivan also had two hits for Braintree.

Weymouth 6, Wamps 5 (10 innings)

Braintree ended the week with a frustrating loss to its archrival, who it had swept each of the last two years, but all of the games had been close.

This time, the close game went the other way as the Wildcats converted a pair of 10th-inning hits into the winning run to improve to 8-3 and move closer to a tournament berth.

Bresnahan pitched the first 6 1/3 innings and Mahoney worked the final three as Braintree tied it in the top of the ninth, only to lose it in the 10th.

“We had a shot at the two games we lost, but I thought we pitched pretty well for the most part,” said assistant coach Jim Joyce. “Bresnahan got a little tired in the seventh (against Weymouth), I think, but he did a good job, and so did Mahoney, who came in with the bases loaded and threw strikes.”